SMART is a project management technique that goes back to George Doran. It is used to formulate target statements using certain minimum criteria.
The letters of the SMART acronym stand for S equals specific, M equals measurable, A equals challenging, R equals realistic, T equals scheduled.
In the context of an innovation project, SMART helps to set the direction of a problem-solving process and to focus the process well and efficiently. SMART gives direction to the subsequent process and a basis for ideation of what to look for (rather than what to avoid).
The literature also mentions disadvantages. Thus, purely intuitive idea finders and design thinkers often find it difficult to formulate a goal, and thus to determine a defined end state, before collecting ideas.
SMART is a project management technique that goes back to George Doran. It is used to formulate target statements using certain minimum criteria.
The letters of the SMART acronym stand for
S = specific,
M = measurable,
A = accepted/ demanding, R = realistic,
T = terminated.
In the context of a project, SMART helps set the direction of a problem-solving process and focus the process well and efficiently. SMART gives direction to the subsequent process and a basis for ideation of what to look for (rather than what to avoid).
In the digital transformation, the individual tasks in the process can be clearly named and demarcated, so that good results are achieved in distributed teams with fewer opportunities for coordination.
Particularly in the digital transformation, the naming of clear goals is important and necessary in order to identify duplications or to name topic areas that have not been worked on.
Advantages
– clear structure and “Excel friendly” mapping
– with changing teams good handover and documentation possible
– easy to learn and apply
Disadvantages
- Often, purely intuitive idea finders and design thinkers have a hard time formulating a goal and committing to a defined end state before collecting ideas.
- The scope of each objective, depending on the level of detail, can vary significantly and can lead to a distortion of the scope of work for inexperienced participants.
